Festival Review and Photos: Way Out West, August 9-11, 2012, – Gothenburg, Sweden

Day 3

A$AP Rocky

Following a Saturday that was swamped in schedule changes and cancellations the first act to see of the day was A$AP Rocky, but because a garden show with Jens Lekman and Nite Jewel was delayed, I was only able to catch the final few songs of A$AP Rocky’s gig. The most striking thing about the gig was that an artist with only a mixtape to his name could fill the Linné tent with a crowd that knew every word. The few songs I had the opportunity to see where well performed, and by all accounts a happy A$AP Rocky is a good A$AP Rocky, and I would have loved to catch the full show.

Kraftwerk

The third and final headliner of the festival was German krautrock pioneers and electronic legends Kraftwerk who had a special 3D show set for the festival. With a stylistically perfect stage set-up with the four members of Kraftwerk and their synths placed in front and below the screen it looked very impressive, and the sound was actually perfect.

Because the “live” part of the show wasn’t anything to call home about, the sound quality and the 3D projections were very much a necessity for the enjoyment of the show, and if you were unlucky to be standing behind someone tall much of the excitement vanished. Despite the impressive setup and the 3D, it was still very much 25,000 people staring at a huge 3D screen for an hour and a half, and after forty minutes, I headed over to the Linné tent to catch Odd Future instead of watching the rest.

Odd Future

While Odd Future really was the ultimate booking of last summer and their star has waned somewhat since they drew a larger crowd than most of the acts in the Linné tent throughout the festival, and by far the most excited one. While Odd Future associate Frank Ocean had cancelled and Earl Sweatshirt in the US working on his record Tyler, The Creator, Hodgy Beats, LeftBrain and the rest certainly where enough to drive the crowd into a frenzy.

Throughout the set the sound was absolutely horrible, the volume on the beats was too low and all the microphones were set to backing vocals level, making it nearly impossible to make out the lyrics. Lucky enough the Odd Future crew was probably the only act at the festival who could make do without useable sound as the fans knew all the lyrics anyway, and as far as the stage show goes you’ll have to look long for a more intense and exciting show based solely on the on-stage performers, without any effects.